Simon Jacobson


Simon Jacobson is the author of Toward a Meaningful Life, founder of The Meaningful Life Center and publisher of the Yiddish English weekly, The Algemeiner Journal. Jacobson is a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Life and early career

Jacobson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Chabad Hasidic family. He studied in the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva and the Rabbinical College of America, and did his post-graduate studies in Central Tomchei Tmimim. While still in yeshiva, Jacobson began working extensively as a choizer for the talks of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the seventh Chabad rebbe.

Career

In 1979, Jacobson began directing a team of scholars known as Vaad Hanachos Hatemimim that memorized and transcribed entire talks that the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave during the Sabbath and holidays. This team published more than 1,000 of the Rebbe's talks.
Jacobson was also part of the research team for Sefer HaLikkutim – an encyclopedic collection of Chassidic thought anthologized from the works of the Tzemach Tzedek.
Jacobson heads The Meaningful Life Center, called a "spiritual Starbucks" by The New York Times.

Publications

Jacobson is the author of the book Toward a Meaningful Life, a William Morrow publication that has sold more than 300,000 copies and has been translated into Hebrew, French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, German, Hungarian, Polish and Czech.
Jacobson is also the publisher of the Yiddish English Weekly, The Algemeiner Journal. Many of his writings are syndicated on other Chabad websites, including Chabad.org and AskMoses.com.

Publications

Books

Jacobson married on February 21, 1983, and has two children. His brother is Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson, a Chabad rabbi and the dean and Rosh Yeshiva of theyeshiva.net, who was the first rabbi invited by the Pentagon to present the annual keynote address to the US military Chief of Chaplains Senior Leadership Training Conference.